Back in the game

Thursday

Sep 13, 2007 at 12:01 AM

By Sarah Bruyn JonesStaff Writer

Single mom. Divorced twice. Depressed. With a sexually transmitted disease.That may not sound like the typical scenario, but a local researcher has found that more and more middle-aged women are endangering their health when they hit the dating scene after a long-term relationship dissolves.Bronwen Lichtenstein, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama who specializes in women’s issues, has discovered that middle-aged women are putting both their mental and sexual health in jeopardy when they rebound from a failed marriage or long-term relationship. Her findings suggest there is an unaddressed public health issue when it comes to the sexual health of older women.Lichtenstein said she interviewed 20 women in West Alabama between the ages of 35 and 66. On average, the women had recently left a long-term relationship (75 percent were marriages) that had lasted 10 and a half years. Nine had an STD, which Lichtenstein said was typical for the population.“They had not dated for a long time and didn’t know what to do how to go about it,” she said. “In essence, they were acting like a teenager and not being very careful.” Not only did Lichtenstein discover that the women were failing to practice safe sex and about half had a diagnosed STD, but she also found that they were desperate to meet men. So desperate, she said, that they were going to Wal-Mart, Publix and other such stores to pick up men on Friday and Saturday nights.“There’s a whole dating scene for this age group going on in Wal-Mart and Publix,” she said.Women in that age group also use what Lichtenstein called passive-aggressive behavior to let men know they are interested. Lichtenstein said women are in the electronic section of Wal-Mart or the cereal aisle of a grocery store bumping shopping carts, or asking for advice or help. This behavior, she said, that could lead to communication problems when it comes to discussing safe sex and sexual health with a new partner.She said that even during her interviews the women never referred to sex by name. Instead they talked about “going crazy” or about having “flurries.”When prompted to talk about health-related concerns involving their behavior, the women in the study mentioned concerns about emotional and physical well-being such as rape or depression. Sexual health was never included.Lichtenstein said there is a correlation between the desperate acts and emotional state and the risky sexual behavior that needs to be further explored to help determine how best to reach women who are risking their health while on the rebound. She is in the process of applying for a grant with the National Institutes of Health to continue her research. She said the West Alabama research was more of a pilot study, setting the groundwork for the larger study that will be done in conjunction with researchers at the University of Indiana. For that study, researchers will concentrate only on women in the age group who were recently diagnosed with an STD.Lichtenstein said the research would focus on how to reach women in this age group.“We need to figure out how to frame a public health message, how do we need to approach women in this age group, and how do we need to talk about them about safer sex,” she said. “We really just don’t have information for this age group and it’s sort of a hidden epidemic.”